


A Griffin in the Snake pit

by LaCuentista



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Abuse, Adopted Children, Child Abuse, F/M, Hogwarts, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, New Family, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:55:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26720995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaCuentista/pseuds/LaCuentista
Summary: Roark Griffin is a muggle born who starts at Hogwarts at nine years old, his magic is pre-developed and his father wants to get rid of him. He is met by enemies, friends and family? What secrets will be revealed when Roark explores the magical world?No changed
Relationships: Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, Rabastian Lestrange/James Potter, Regulus Black/Bartemius Crouch Jr., Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black/Rodolphus Lestrange, Tom Riddle/Original Male Character(s)
Kudos: 7





	A Griffin in the Snake pit

On the 1 of September London was lovely, it was even sunny and not a dark cloud on in the blue sky. An unusual London day, there was a nice wind blowing through the streets and shaking the green and yellow leaves in the trees. One could feel this was the last summer day like this for the year and there were people everywhere enjoying the last summer sun. Then there are those who can't be out to feel the sunshine on their faces, maybe they are working or sick, there are a number of reasons to be forced to stay inside. 

One nine-year-old boy was sitting in a big sleek black car, on his way to Kings cross 

station. He was going to be spending the year at Hogwarts and his father hadn't even hadn't even made the effort to drive him to the station himself. He didn't mind that much, if he could stay away from his father for some extra hours, he was just relieved, but still. 

Mr. Harwell, his father's driver, wasn't much better, he terrified the boy. He was always mean to the boy and didn't like children at all, but his job now was to drive the nine-year-old to the station and that he would do, nothing more. 

The boy was watching London through the window daydreaming of the sun, he would have loved to be out there playing in the grass or in a lake. The boy was small, even for a nine-year-old, he had dark brown hair and clear blue eyes, not at all like his father's blonde hair and green eyes. He had thought that he resembled his mother but there were no photos of her anywhere in the house, she had died giving birth to him and his father still hadn't forgiven him for that. His father was a wealthy man who owned a larger publishing company. Mr. Steven Griffin was known in London, but most people had never met his son Roark Griffin. The boy was kept inside the house and it was said he was sick often and was a weakling, not an exemplary son to inherit the company. That wasn't the truth though, he was a clever kid, but he had started making strange things happen when he was barely four, making Mr. Griffin punish him for these incidents as he tried to make him stop and be normal. This was of course accidental magic and completely normal for magical children, but neither of the Griffins new that. 

The Griffins had gotten a letter addressed to Roark one month ago, with an invitation to Hogwarts, there had been a list with things he needed for his first year at the school and an address for where he should go to buy them. His father thought it was a joke letter but still drove Roark to the leaking cauldron with money for the school supplies and left him there, it was important to Mr. Griffin that his son looked wealthy. Even though he didn't care about the boy he was a part of his own image and he would not be viewed as pore. The small boy had just stood there for a while looking scared before taking a deep breath and walking in. It was a dark misty pub with a lot of people dressed in strange clothes, one man walked up to him when he just stood there in the middle of the room looking lost 

" Are you lost boy?", he asked with a smile. Roark took a step back in fright before taking the man in, he didn't seem to be dangerous, but Roark new he could never be too careful. 

" I'm looking for Diagon Ally", he responded." Have i come to the wrong place?". The man chuckled and shook his head, he showed the boy to the back of the pub, there were only some bins and a brick wall. The man pushed on one of the bricks three times with a strange stick and the bricks moved out of the way making a vault. Roark watched with large eyes as the wall reviled Diagon Ally, it was a wonderfully weird ally with large shops and lots of people. Roark thanked the man who helped him and stepped through the vault to this strange new world, it seemed the letter wasn't a joke, magic was real. 

Roark was thrown out of his day dream by the car screeching to a halt, making him hit his head on the window. He barely had time to rub the sore spot on his head before Mr. Hartwell had opened his door, dragged him out and placed his suitcase and rucksack beside him. The lack car was driving away from him, leaving him alone on the large train station. 

Roark didn't know what to do really, he hadn't travelled by train before and only had a ticket with the number on the platform his train was leaving from. 93/4, when he saw it, he had thought it must be a mistake but he had been assured by the man in the shop, where he bought his school robes, that it was right. He had even explained how to get to the platform, not that the explanation made any sense. He threw a glance at his ticket before starting to drag the large suitcase towards platform nine, he was happy the suitcase had wheels or it would have been impossible for him to take it with him. 

Standing in front of the pillar between platform nine and ten he looked suspiciously, he looked up and saw the time was 10:50pm, the train would leave at 11pm so he would have to hurry up. Taking a chance Roark slowly pushed his suitcase in front of him, against the bricks. A small gasp left him as it went through and he slowly followed. He stopped as he was met with a large dark red steam locomotive, the Hogwarts express, it said largely on the side. He had found it, then he remembered the time and hurried over to one of the doors. There was a lot of people to get through but they moved as they saw he was trying to get on board. He struggled to get his suitcase on the train but managed just barely, then there was a man dressed as a conductor asking for his name, labelling the suitcase and taking the bag. Suddenly Roark was standing on the train on his way to Hogwarts for the first time and he realized he had a whole year away from home. A small smile crept on his face as the train whistle sounded and the Hogwarts express started moving. Now he just had to find somewhere to sit, preferably alone. 

Roark had been lucky, he had found an empty carriage and fallen asleep watching the scenery move outside of the window. He had been tired after the nervousness the last days, not knowing if Hogwarts was real, but now that he was on his way he had finally relaxed and gotten some sleep. 

When he awoke it was dark outside the train and he stuck his head out of his carriage, the corridor was full of kids in different ages in their school robes. Roark shut the door again and took out his own robes from his backpack, he made sure the door was locked before changing. His bag he slung over one shoulder before sitting down and looking at the window again. He couldn't see anything, it was too dark, but he wanted to be ready for when they arrived. 

The train stopped twenty minutes later and all kids were streaming out of the doors, Roark was swept off with all the other students and ended up on a new platform. A woman was yelling for all the first years to follow her and Roark paused his way through the crowed towards her. She led them to the shore of a large lake, on the shore there lay many small wooden boats and on the far side they could see a large castle. 

The lights in the castle made it seem inviting rather than scary and the stars, lake and the forest surrounding it all made a beautiful picture. When all the kids were seated, the boats were of. They were gliding over the blank calm lake with the stars above them and the darkness around. All boats had torches on the sides and the lights reflected in the water, Roark breathlessly took in the view, as the large castle comes closer and closer. 

He was tense being so close to the other children in the boat. He felt small with being two years younger than all the others, he didn't know anything about this world but was still supposed to understand at handle it on his own, although he was definitely happy to be out of the house. 

His letter had explained he was offered his spot at Hogwarts two years earlier than was normal. this due to his magic being pre-developed, Roark didn't really understand what that meant but he would find out when in the school. 

The motion of his boat hitting shore brought I'm back from his thoughts, and as the first years got out of the boats Roark looked back, out over the lake. Last chance to change his mind he thought, chuckling to himself he turned to the castle. Like he would go back home now, without knowing what's up there in that great, big castle. 

From this side of the lake to the castle it was a fifteen minutes' walk, Roark and the other kids kept twisting their necks to look at everything on the way. He saw a glimpse of what he thought was the quidditch pitch, he had been intrigued by the quidditch shop at Diagon Alley and spent quite some time in there. He had even decided to buy a broom, apparently pounds had higher value than galleons. Exchanging currency had been a bit frightening, Gringotts was an intimidating building and the goblins were so angry looking. But when he shook hands with the one assigned to him the goblin had smiled a crocked smile and helped him. He hadn't told his father that he hadn't used all the money, he had given some back for it not to look suspicious but kept the rest, meaning he had pocket money for the first time in his life. 

They were all ushered up the stairs to the castle, in through the gates, Roark couldn’t stop locking at everything, it was...well magical. The teacher who took them from the train and here gathered them all around her. She welcomed them and presented herself as Galatea Merrythought, she was an older lady with long brown hair speckled with silver braided down her back and black, silky robes billowing around her. She locked kind as well as strict and sharp, Roark was intrigued to know what she was like as a teacher. 

” I am the defense against the dark arts and you will all have me as your teacher in the subject”, she continued. “Soon you will enter these doors and be sorted into one of four houses; Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. That house will be your home and family for your years to come studying here at Hogwarts”. She further explained that their suitcases would be in their rooms and that they would be shown them after the sorting and supper. 

” You will get your schedules now and they will fill in themselves after your sorting, don’t lose them. She took a tiny thing out of her robes pointed her wand at it and said “engorgio”, the thing grew to a large stack of parchments. Roark marveled at the display of magic, it wasn’t the first he had seen by now but it still was as amazing as the first time. 

After handing out one schedule to each student she turned around and walked to the large double doors, she had pointed at earlier, she beckoned them all to follow her and opened the doors and went through. Roark quickly put his schedule in his bag before following the others. 

The doors had blocked out almost all sound from the large hall on the other side, Roark was rather overwhelmed by the large room. There were four long tables and the people at the tables was dressed in green, yellow, red respective blue. He guessed this was the house colors, in the sealing there were floating candles lighting up the room. The sealing itself locked nothing like a sealing he had ever seen before. I locked as if he was seeing the real night sky, clouds moving and stars twinkling. They were led between the tables to the front of the room where there was another long table on a raised platform were the teachers were seated. There were quite many, witch Roark figured must mean there was a lot of courses you could take. In front of the teachers table there was a small stool with a hat sitting on top. 

The whole room was suddenly quiet and watching the hat like they were waiting for something, that something was apparently for the hat to start singing: 

New students to walk the castles hall 

To your first Hogwarts year we welcome you all 

Learn all you can, be careful with your potion brew 

Listen well and you will hear something new 

Your thoughts you cannot hide from me 

I will decide in which house you'll be 

Never have I placed a student wrong 

I can see where you belong 

Put me on your head right now 

Don’t let no scowl onto your brow 

You will soon know if you're a Gryffindor, 

Were the brave and bold gather 

Here daring chivalry is what matter 

Or might you be a loyal Hufflepuff 

They are just and hard working for a start 

Stand for truth with patience and have kindness in their heart 

Perhaps you would fit best in Ravenclaw 

The wise and clever house with wit 

Were intellect and learning make you never quit 

Might you be a cunning Slytherin 

Whose ambition leads the way to the top 

Determination makes sure you won't flop 

So, take a seat and listen hear 

Release all of your fear 

Put me on your head at once 

For I am the sorting hat of Hogwarts 

And I decide were your stay here start 

It's up to you what happens before you depart 

The hats song was awarded by resounding applause from the whole room, the hat took a bow 

and then went still on the stool again. When the sound of the applause had finally died down Professor Merrythought started calling out the names on a parchment she held, directing them to sit on the stool and placing the hat on their heads. The hat would then announce which house the child would be part of. 

” Clara Burke!” 

“RAVENKLAW!”, the hat boomed. The girl smiling and walking over to sit down at the blue table, her robes getting blue linings and the Ravenclaw crest as well. 

About fifteen children was called and every time a table got another student they roared and applauded the new comer. The time it took before it was Roark's turn was very much enough for him to get nervous, what if the hat didn’t sort him at all and he had to go home again, was that even possible? 

” Roark Griffin”, professor Merrythought called. Roark shakily made his way to the stool and the sorting hat, slowly he sat down on the stool looking out over all the students who were watching him. Trying to will the hat to sort him with his mind, he startled when he heard the hat chuckle. 

“Of course, I will sort you”, it said before announcing: 

“SLYTHERIN!” 

He quietly walked over to the green table and sat down on the far away end closest to the large hall doors, as he sat, he was very relieved. He hadn't even realized how tense he had been about the sorting, but now he had a house and could relax a bit. After sitting down, he spaced out during the rest of the sorting, he would sometimes look up to see someone walking to their new table but he didn’t pay much attention otherwise. When the sorting was done a short, slightly chubby man in grey robes and a funny looking hat, walked around the teachers table and looked out over the students. 

“Welcome new and old students”, the man started in a squeaky voice. “I am headmaster Armando Dippet, for you who haven't met me before”. He swept with his gaze over his audience. “For the first years I will present our four head of house. Gryffindor's head of house is Galatea Merrythought””. The women who had read the first year's names stood up and nodded to the student's applause, before retaking her seat. 

“Horace Slughorn, Slytherin!”, this time a fat man in purple robes and slick combed hair stood, he smiled largely and waved. 

“Silvanus Kettleburn, Hufflepuff!”, a tall nice-looking man raised his hand and smiled at the students. He was wearing black robes and had large square glasses sitting on his nose. 

“And last but not least we have a new head of house for Ravenclaw, Filius Flitwick!” Flitwick was a short, stubby dwarf and to be seen properly he stood on his chair, he also had black robes and small round glasses. 

“That was all I had to say for now, let's eat before bed”, Dippet clapped his hands twice and the table was filled by food, he watched mouth slightly agape as different kinds of food magically appeared on the table and quickly started filling his growling stomach, he didn’t know how often food would be served. He didn’t talk with the ones sitting close to him and it seemed they thought him shy and therefore left him alone, Roark was happy with that. 

After the feast the first years were showed to their common rooms by the house prefects. Roark got slightly nervous when they went down stairs to find the Slytherin common room, he hoped it wasn’t cold. Cold was the worst, it was cold in his room at home, his father thought it unnecessary to waste electricity on him. The prefects divided them in to boys and girls and led them into two different corridors. 

Then they called the names of which children were sharing the first room before moving on to the next. As Roark was ushered into one of the rooms together with three other boys, Theodore Nott, Corbin Yaxley and Castor Parkinson, he immediately didn’t like them. They seemed the type who thinks too much of themselves, definitely the people to have their kids named after them. 

He was happy to discover that even as they were in the dungeons it wasn’t cold, the room had four large fourposter beds, with large, heavy drapes you could use for privacy. As he walked over what he saw was his suitcase at the end of the bed closest to the door on the right, he could feel the other boys locking at him. Roark tried to ignore them and opened his suitcase and rooted around until he found a pair of sweats, a long-sleeved shirt and his tooth brush. Three gazes followed him to the bathroom they shared as well, until he quickly shut and locked the door. 

He breathed a sigh of relief and tried to calm his nerves, but he had a bad feeling about these boys, he didn’t like how they looked at him. It appeared they already knew each other at least a bit as well, meaning it would be harder for Roark to make friends with them, if that would be an option. He decided to take a shower before going to bed, there were towels hanging in here that he could use. He undressed and put on the shower making sure it was a nice temperature, before slowly stepped under the spray. Closing is eyes he just stood there and let the water all on him, blocking all other sounds. It had been a long time since he had gotten a warm shower, for the same reason as the coldness in his room, so he trough fully enjoyed it now, even changing the temperature to hotter just because he could. But he didn’t want the other boys to think he took too long so he stepped out after about a quarter of an hour. He dried himself with one of the towels and made sure he left no excess water on the tiles. He dressed himself and reached for his tooth brush, watching himself in the mirror he could fell this year would be different to the one before, he smiled slightly at himself before walking back out. 

The other boys didn’t notice him as they were engrossed in a conversation, Roark didn’t think anything about it until he hear they were talking about him and making fun of him. They were making sly comments about is size and last name, being a Griffin in Slytherin was apparently hilarious. They did notice him when he got on to his bed, but they didn’t seem to care very much, Nott gave him a mean smirk which Roark blocked by pulling the bed drapes close. Still he couldn’t sleep until the three other boys had used the bathroom and he was sure they were asleep. He lay in his bed for hours before the even breathes of his roommates finally let him relax enough to fall asleep. 

Roark loved all his courses, magic was fantastic and interesting, all courses had its charm but his favorite was DA. Defense was important for him, so he did everything in the class better than perfect. He wanted to know he had the power to stand up for himself. With the last September day, the leaves on the trees turned red and orange, Roark was enjoying the freedom he had. He took lots of walks on the castle grounds just breathing the fresh air and practicing spells on his own. The possibility to just walk around was new to him, at first, he was hesitant to walk out the large castle gates even though he knew it was allowed. The first week Roark found the library, and what a library it was. There were so many books he would never be able to read all of them even if he tried for his whole life. It quickly became his favorite spot inside of the castle and he spent a lot of time in there reading and researching his school subjects and doing homework. As well as learning about the magical society and its history, he got bored of professor Binns history lessons real fast. In the library he could read about so much more than one goblin war at a time. He wanted to understand the world he had been thrown into head first, and it is useful to know laws and politics. More often than not Roark would find a good book and get stuck, reading cover to cover in one go. 

Unfortunately, the time spent out of the library went by slowly with his three roommates being assholes, the whispers the first night had only been the start. It had continued exponentially, they hadn't beat him up but they would push him around, throw his things on the floor and just verbally assaulting Roark all the time. They would hide Roark's things and sabotage his assignments if he left them laying around the dorm, sitting beside him om meals and bullying him as often as they could. Ignoring them really wasn't making them stop ether, they only left him alone when he was in the library because they didn’t study much. Roark had found and learned some useful spells and jinxes like muffliato and an anti-intruder jinx, hindering his dorm mates from hearing anything from his bed or intruding on it, or his suitcase, in any way. It had made him feel a lot more relaxed and safer, making it easier to sleep. Still, it was a lot better than being home, he tried not to think about the breaks to much but the closer to Christmas, the more nervous he got and the worse he slept. 

When November arrived, Roark decided he didn't want to deal with his roommates anymore. He had slept terribly the last week due to nightmares and he did not want to test his self-restraint any longer. As his knowledge about magic raised his confidence Roark found it harder and harder to not lash out on Nott and his friends. He had done so once, sending a rather severe stinging hex at Nott, but he had gotten detention for that and he would not risk that again. He was observant and he had noticed that Nott, Yaxley and Parkinson always seemed wary of three older Slytherin boys. Roark hadn't seen the older boys do anything special, but no one messed with them for some reason. They were left alone by most students, even the older ones. Almost to the point of avoidance, he assumed they had rich and powerful families, he didn't know the name of either of the boys and since he didn’t talk to anyone he couldn’t ask. From the looks of two of them they were brothers, one of them larger than the other but with clear family features. He had overheard Nott talk about them with Parkinson and Yaxley and it actually seemed as if they were a bit frightful of them. 

This November morning, he had therefor made his mind up, he was going to sit with these three scary boys at breakfast. That would hopefully mean he would be left alone by the other boys. He had woken up as usual and hurried out of the dorm with his bag before the other boys where even close to be finished. Making his way through the common room he rubbed the sides of his head where he could feel a headache coming on. He quickly walked the corridors to the great hall, well there he came to a halt scanning the Slytherin table until he found the three older boys in the middle. He walked his way over as he watched them with secure steps. The brothers were sitting with their backs to Roark and the third boy was sitting on the other side of the table. He stood hesitantly behind them for a few seconds before knocking on the bigger brothers' shoulder, getting three pairs of eyes traced on him. 

” Can I sit here?” Roark asked timidly, their gazes made him nervous. It was obvious they wondered how dared talking to them. The boy on the opposite side of the table had a book beside his plate and after he had looked at Roark for a few seconds he focused on the book again. He had dark slightly curly hair and high cheek bones, he was very pretty. Roark was so focused on watching the reading boy he almost missed the answer to his question. 

” You should sit with your year mates”, the pretty boy told him without even looking up from his book. Roark frowned, there was no such rule, it wasn’t even against the rules to sit at another house table. And it was rather rude to not look at him when he talked. 

” I rather not”, he said softly, keeping his eyes on the pretty boys' face. 

” Why?”, the bigger of the brother turned towards him, looking curious. He had blue almost silver eyes and dark brown hair. He was a lot bigger than Roark, even when sitting down he was almost taller then the younger boy. 

” Some of them won't leave me alone and I don’t like them”, Roark said as he met the silver eyed boys' gaze. The smaller of the brothers shook his head and turned to Roark. 

” They won't respect you if you run away from them like a scared child”, he grumbled at Roark 

“Now go deal with your own shit instead of seeking Lestranges protection”. He turned back to his breakfast. Roark gaped at his back, who did he think he was, he didn’t know Roark at all and had no right to make such assumptions. 

” Well I'm not running from those idiots, but I also don’t want to see their faces as I eat”, he growled back at the boy. “And who is Lestrange?” He added furrowing his brows. The smaller brother quickly turned to him with an affronted look on his face, the pretty boy laughed at his friends reaction, making him look angrier yet. The bigger brother chuckled at him, Roark was to small to truly scare him. Suddenly the pretty boy looked up and met Roark's eyes, holding it for a few seconds. 

” Fine, sit, but why would you try to sit here? You apparently don’t know us at all”, he said gesturing to the brothers to move, still looking Roark in the eyes. A tiny smirk found its way on to Roark's face. 

” Apparently you scare my roommates”, he answered. He was about to continue when he was cut off by a snort. 

” So, you are more scared of some first years than us? Bad prioritizing”, the smaller of the brothers snickered at him, still looking a bit irritated. But he and his brother still moved over slightly, leaving space for Roark to sit down. He quickly sat before they could change their minds and started plating food, his stomach growled in agreement. 

” I'm not scared of either you or them”, Roark grumbled as he started eating the pancakes he had put on his plate. He was trying not to notice how very small he was sitting between these brothers, he barely went up to their shoulders, standing he would be minuscular beside them. 

” Then do something about them”, the larger boy on his left said. “If you are as unafraid as you say you are”. Roark swallowed his food and rolled his eyes at the comment. 

” And risk getting detention again, don’t think so. I have better things to do with my time”, he replied. “Besides, detention is boring”. That made the older boys all chuckle at him, Roark wasn’t sure if they thought what he said funny or silly. 

” You are a first year”, the pretty one said. “You can't possibly have that much to do that one detention takes too much of your precious time”. Roark looked up at him, he was smirking again, which annoyed Roark. 

” Well the homework, research, quidditch and finding my things take more time than one would think”, he mumbled, looking down at his plate. If he had kept his eyes on the boy in front of him, he would have seen the intrigued look on his face and the shutting of his book. 

” What are you researching?” he asked Roark at the same time as the bigger brother on Roark's left said: 

” Stop losing your things and save time then”. The older boys could see Roark wasn’t really fond of what ether of them said, still he chooses to answer the question instead of addressing the statement. 

” Homework and some info about this world you know, nothing special”, he answered vaguely. 

” Wait, that means you’re a mudblood”, the boy on his right said, wrinkling his nose. That word made Roark glare hard at him, he had been introduced to the it early on by his roommates and he didn’t like it when someone used it against him. Like it was something dirty or would make him lesser then themselves, he had realised that it was the racism of the magical world. Grading people after their blood purity. 

” Yes, I am”, he kept glaring. “It's not something I have any influence over now is it”. The boy smirked back at Roark meanly as he looked him up and down. 

” Maybe that’s why you are so small, underdeveloped in more than magic”. That made Roark's tired mind rather angry and sad, his size was a sore spot for him, one he hid well but still. Roark was not sitting here to get mocked by these people instead of the usually ones. He stood up facing the boy on his right, the boy had leaned back a bit and locked entirely too comfortable and relaxed for Roark's liking. 

” Or it's because I'm nine”, he scowled and turned to walk away but the larger of the brothers grabbed his arm and effectively stopped him. He couldn’t hinder the shudder of discomfort that went through him as the other boy touched him, but he collected himself and turned back around to face the larger boy. 

” You're a magic is pre-developed and you’re mudblood?” the bigger boy asked with wide eyes. Roark leaned in close to the boy's face with a murderous stare, at least he was standing and could almost look down on the other boy. 

” Yes, and if you use mudblood as an insult, you better stop or I will risk detention anyway”. The boy was clearly not awaiting a threat but also very much not scared of the smaller child. He smiled and pulled Roark down on the bench again. 

” Doesn’t seem like it can be used as an insult to you”, he said and continued with his breakfast. As Roark watched the other boys, he could see even the boy on his right seemed a tiny bit impressed with him now. The pretty one in front of him watched him thoughtfully as Roark sat tense between the brothers, then he reached his hand over the table for Roark to shake. 

” I'm Tom Riddle”, he introduced himself. “These two are Rodolphus and Rabastian Lestrange”. He said and pointed at the larger and smaller boy respectively. Roark looked at the hand for a few seconds longer before reaching out and shaking it. 

” Roark Griffin”, he answered. His last name made the other boys' smirk and Roark rolled his eyes. 

” Are you sure you are in the right house?” Rabastian said, but he didn’t look angry any longer when he did and Roark relaxed slightly. 

” What do you have during first period?”, Rodolphus asked. 

” Defense against the dark arts, would have liked to have dark art as a compliment though”, Roark answered. “Can I choose that later, it would make every defense more understandable if I knew more about the what I'm defending against”. He trailed off as he saw that they all watched him. 

“It seems useful to know”. The boys stared at him until Tom broke the silence with a small laugh. 

” You are interesting”, he said. “But no, there are no such course. The dark arts are considered to be evil and are not allowed in England”. Roark looked at him confused, he couldn’t understand how that made sense. 

“Cant you use it for a good cause?” he asked. “Surly the intention must be what is against the law”. Tom kept his gaze but it was Rabastian that answered, making Roark turn towards the other boy. 

“Unfortunately not, the ministry consider themselves “light” and banned dark magic after the last Grindelwald war”. Roark had read about that in the library last week so he could understand where the fear of the dark magic came from. Grindelwald had been a terrible and cruel man, but one could do cruel deeds with light magic as well. 

“That makes no sense”, Roark said. “Surly the ones on the light side hurt and killed people even with light magic”, he would definitely read up on this soon. 

“You really are interesting”, Tom said. “Find us at lunch if you can”. Roark smiled and nodded quickly, maybe he had managed more than just avoiding Nott, maybe had met people that he could be friends with. They ate the last of their breakfast in relative silence, but it didn’t bother Roark, Nott was leaving him alone and that was always good. 

They separated to walk to their different classes and even though Roark's mood was great now, it didn’t take much time before Nott was beside him again. He sighed as he saw they boy coming his way, flanked by Parkinson and Yaxley as always. Nott slung and arm around Roark's shoulders and grinned at him. 

” Trying to avoid us are we”, he drawled, looking mock hurt. 

” Yes!”, Roark answered simply. Shaking of the arm and keeping his eyes forward. 

” I'm hurt, who else would ever sit with you, mudblood”, Nott shoved him hard and Roark who wasn’t prepared fell to the floor spilling his books and quills from his bag. 

” I'll help you with that”, came a voice from behind them in the corridor. Roark could see Notts face pale and when he turned around it was Tom who was standing there. Yaxley and Parkinson had already turned and left as quickly as they could, but Nott seemed to have frozen on the spot. Tom bent down to help Roark with his books but stopped halfway and turned to frozen Nott. 

” Don’t you have somewhere to be?”, he sneered at the boy. Nott quickly turned and fled through the corridor. Roark smirked to himself and whispered something under his breath, Tom looked up from the books when he heard a thud. The annoying boys' shoelaces appeared to have been tied together making him fall. The fallen boy looked at Roark with dark angry eyes, before once again seeing Tom and hurriedly retying his shoes and running off agin. Tom looked at Roark and saw a small smile on his lips, so the boy did get back at his bullies, he was just careful not to get caught. Tom helped the small boy collect his books in silence and when Roark opened his mouth to thank him, he stopped holding up a hand. 

” No need”, he said. “It was worth it for that jinx. That made Roark blush but he nodded at Tom before both continued to their classes. 

Tom had forgotten his book in the great hall and went back to get it, finally walking to his and Rodolphus class he saw one boy pushing another one over, making all his thing spill out on the floor. He wasn’t going to do anything about it but then he recognized the boy being pushed over. It was Roark the interesting boy, and Tom couldn’t help but be irritated seeing someone harassing the smaller boy. He didn’t know Roark and it seemed he was a mudblood which he didn’t like, but there was something about him that intrigued Tom. Maybe it was how he stood up to Rabastian or his interest in dark arts, but he liked the boy so far. He walked over just as the harasser was about to kick one of Roark's books. 

” I'll help you”, he said gruffly. He saw the stupid boys face pale as he saw Tom. 

” Don’t you have somewhere to be?”, he glared at the boy, who turned and ran, the other two boys which had just been there had already disappeared, cowards. Tom had just bent down to collect the books when a thud and a groan caught his attention. Looking up the running boy had fallen since his shoelaces had been tied together. He glanced over at Roark and saw a small smile grace his lips, that’s interesting he thought. After they had separated Tom had to hurry to get to class in time, fortunately it was magic history and professor Binns doesn't really care about anything except what he is saying himself. He wouldn't notice if the whole class walked out and didn’t come back. When he stepped into the classroom Binns had just started, he sat the seat beside Rodolphus who looked at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“What took you so long?” his friend whispered to him. Tom unpacked his parchment and quill, while whispering back. 

“On my way back, I bumped into that boy again, Roark”, he answered. Rodolphus looked at him as to say; so? 

“He had been pushed over by some other boy and his friends, I helped him pick his books up”, at his friends unbelieving stare, Tom rolled his eyes. He could help people when he wanted to, admittedly it was unlike him to help a first year with his books. Something about Roark was special, that something made Tom want to help him. 

“He was very small”, Rodolphus mused. “Still, he really didn’t seem intimidated by Rabastian even when he insulted him”. Tom nodded thoughtfully, the younger boy also had to have a strong magic core if he was two years early to Hogwarts. Tom wanted to know more about Roark, he turned to his friend beside him thinking. 

“You didn’t mind that I invited him for lunch, right?”, Tom asked, he would have done it anyway but he still wanted to know. Rodolphus looked deep in thought for a few seconds before answering. 

“No, he felt like he could be a good addition to our group”, he said. “I agree with what you said before, he is definitely interesting. Rabastian might oppose to that though”. The last part he added with a smirk, one that Tom returned. The younger Lastrange had complained loudly about the Roark when they had separated from him after breakfast. Tom and Rodolphus was used to it, he was like that with a lot of new people he met, so they didn’t argue with him. Especially not when they had a class to get to, Rabastian the lucky sod had a free period today. They were both quiet for a while, listening to the lecture and trying not to fall asleep. After half an hour of goblin wars, both of the boys took to finishing homework instead. Tom wanted to go through his potion essay one last time before handing it in in the afternoon and Rodolphus continued to study to their ancient runes' exam. After he was sure his essay was perfect, Tom also turned his attention to the runes, the exam was going to be next Wednesday and he had some things to go through. Tom heard Rodolphus sigh and inwardly agreed with his friend, he looked forward to lunch, just two and a half lessons left until then.


End file.
